Synopses & Reviews
The giant Nazi leisure and tourism agency, Strength through Joy (KdF)'s low cost cultural events, factory beautification programs, organized sports, and, especially, mass tourism mitigated the tension between the Nazi regime's investment in rearmament and German consumers' desire for a higher standard of living. Shelley Baranowski reveals how Strength through Joy de-emphasized the sacrifices of the present while its programs presented visions of a prosperous future--that would materialize as soon as "living space" was acquired. As an agency open to racially acceptable Germans only, it segregated the regime's victims from the Nazi "racial community."
Review
"All in all, this is a very useful book, particularly for those who seek an introductory overview. It convincingly extends the subject well beyond its classic boundaries by opening up new perspectives on the relation between consumption and National Socialism." American Historical Review"Anyone interested in the history of Nazi Germany, in mass-market tourism, and in an account of a twentieth-century attempt to create a balance between work and life should read Baranowski's thorough and provocative study." Business History Review, Hans-Liudger Dienel, Berlin University of Technology
Synopsis
This is the first book on the giant Nazi leisure and tourism agency, Strength through Joy (KdF). KdF's low cost cultural events, factory beautification programs, organized sports, and, especially, mass tourism became the primary means by which the Nazi regime mitigated the tension between the investment in rearmament and German consumers' desire for a higher standard of living. Strength through Joy mitigated the sacrifices of the present while its programs presented visions of a prosperous future once 'living space' was acquired.
Table of Contents
Introduction; 1. Nazism, popular aspirations, and mass consumption on the road to power; 2. 'A Volk Strong in Nerve: strength through Joy's place in the Third Reich; 3. The beauty of labor: 'Plant community' and coercion; 4. Mass tourism, the cohesive nation, and visions of Empire; 5. Racial community and individual desires: tourism, the standard of living, and popular consent; 6. Memories of the past and promises for the future: strength through Joy in wartime; 7. Epilogue: the end of 'German' consumption.